State Department severs network ties after leaks

WASHINGTON – The government scrambled Tuesday to prevent future spills of U.S. secrets like the embarrassing WikiLeaks disclosures, while officials pondered possible criminal prosecutions and Interpol in Europe sent out a “red notice” for nations to be on the lookout for the website’s founder.

Interpol placed Julian Assange on its most-wanted list after Sweden issued an arrest warrant against him as part of a drawn-out rape probe – involving allegations Assange has denied. The Interpol alert is likely to make international travel more difficult for Assange, whose whereabouts are publicly unknown.

In Washington, the State Department severed its computer files from the government’s classified network, officials said, as U.S. and world leaders tried to clean up from the leak that sent America’s sensitive documents onto computer screens around the globe.

By temporarily pulling the plug, the U.S. significantly reduced the number of government employees who can read important diplomatic messages. It was an extraordinary hunkering down, prompted by the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of those messages this week by WikiLeaks, the self-styled whistle-blower organization.

The documents revealed that the U.S. is still confounded about North Korea’s nuclear military ambitions, that Iran is believed to have received advanced missiles capable of targeting Western Europe and – perhaps most damaging to the U.S. – that the State Department asked its diplomats to collect DNA samples and other personal information about foreign leaders.

While Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, taunted the U.S. from afar on Tuesday, lawyers from across the government were investigating whether it could prosecute him for espionage, a senior defense official said.

There have been suggestions that Assange or others involved in the leaks could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, but the question could be complicated. Who and what is he and his website? He has portrayed himself as a crusading journalist, and the Justice Department has steered clear of prosecuting journalists for publishing leaked secrets.